cookery school

YOU TOO CAN
BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS!

Pure Taste, the food and wine magazine from Cheshire Life, Lancashire Life and Lake District Life.
Summer 2007

Amanda Griffiths, previously a member of the ‘can cook but won’t cook’ set, puts on her pinny and discovers the delights of cooking at a school in the Lake District.

SOMETIMES I wonder why I have an oven. The amount of time it actually gets used it would be better utilised as extra storage space (maybe for the hundreds of shoes that seem to keep multiplying). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I CAN’T cook, it’s more a case of won’t cook. To be frank, the idea of spending hours in the kitchen making something from scratch that will be wolfed down in a matter of minutes fills me with a feeling of pointlessness. Hence the fact that I never invite friends round for a bite to eat – unless they are happy with takeaway – we always eat out.

So when I received an invitation to Lucy Cooks cookery school in the Lake District I thought this would be a chance to change the way I think about cooking and reduce the cost of my social life.

I booked myself onto the ‘Thrilling Three Courses’ programme to learn how to create a great starter, main course and dessert to wow my friends.

I met my fellow classmates over a cuppa, a homemade scone and introductory talk by Lucy Nicholson, the brains behind the cookery school.

Then it was upstairs to the light and airy ‘classroom’ fitted with four-man work stations and we were given the menu for the day: chicken, asparagus and sun-blushed tomato roll carved over rocket leaves with a papaya chilli salsa to start; pan seared fillets of seabass on a smoked bacon rosti with stir fried vegetables drizzled with a dill beurre blanc as the main course and rhubarb and almond jalousie with crème Anglaise for dessert. I felt the panic starting to rise. Could I really do this?

Our mentor for the day, chef Dale Blacow, talked us through the recipes and demonstrated the first stage. Then it was off to our work stations to do our bit. As we rolled up our sleeves and prepared to get stuck in Dale walked among us, checking temperatures – the ovens, not our foreheads – and offered advice or help as needed, before calling us back to the front to demonstrate the next stage.

And, I have to admit I surprised myself: the panic subsided slightly and I managed not to cut my fingers off or burn them on the hot pans, although there was nearly an accident grating the potato for the rosti.

While the chicken roll was cooling in the fridge, we began making the main course which we would enjoy for our lunch. The idea of the course is to show you how some bits of the three course meal could be prepared  before the dinner party, (thus taking the stress out of cooking), rather than being cooked as you try to entertain your guests. The seabass, obviously, was the one part that had to be cooked ready to serve then and there.

After lunch it was back upstairs to make the dessert for our ‘party’ and the dressing for the starter. But it was the dessert I was particularly proud of: the puff pastry rose spectacularly, looking golden and sweet, and tasted absolutely fabulous. The time flew and all too soon it was time to make our way home, piled up with goodies (starters, desserts and extra rostis and vegetables left over from lunch time) ready to wow our friends and family.

The day was certainly great fun, and reinforced my belief that I actually can cook when I make the effort. Before I arrived I kept having flashbacks to horrific home economics lessons at school, but Lucy Cooks immediately dispelled those ideas.

Lucy explained that the school, with its variety of one-day courses and demonstration days, aims to offer something for everyone, no matter what the age or ability. You can increase your knowledge of food, whether that’s cooking it, or picking up new ideas as to the way to do it. And, the fact that you’re working, albeit individually, on a work station with three other people, of varying degrees of experience and confidence, gives you the opportunity to ask questions you may otherwise feel shy about asking.

The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and it would certainly make an interesting day out for groups of friends. You’ll come home with some practical know-how, but more importantly it’s good fun. And I never thought I’d say that about spending a day in a kitchen.

This feature first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Pure Taste, the food and wine magazine from Cheshire Life, Lancashire Life and Lake District Life.